There is a great deal of information found on your credit report, and the responsibility for it being accurate falls on your shoulders. With that in mind, you have to be proactive to ensure it has what it should on it. Don’t wait until there is a problem brought to your attention to take notice of it and to review it.
You have the right to obtain a free credit snapshot in South Africa every year. You can obtain it by going online, submitting a letter, or calling a toll free number. You will need to provide some information to identify you in order to get this free report about your credit. However, the information you need to provide should be items you already have access to. This helps to prevent problems such as someone obtaining a credit report about someone else.
The common things you will be asked are your full name, your current address, your previous address if the current one is less than 3 years residency, and your social security number. You may be asked security questions such as what your mother’s maiden name is or about some account you have and the dollar amount that your payments were for that account. Once all of the requested information is submitted accurately your credit report can be released.
If you opt to get a free credit report online, you can then have immediate access to it. Printing a copy for your records is a very good idea. Then you can go through it and make sure everything on it is accurate. If you opt to have it mailed to you then it can take a week or so for it to be received. Most of the time though they attempt to mail it to you the next business day. If you don’t get it in 10 days, follow up regarding it.
The other choice is for you to get your credit report faxed to you. This can be faster than you waiting for it to show up by mail. It is also a great option if you don’t happen to be where you can gain access to an internet connection so that it is can be immediately accessed or emailed to you.
It is a good idea to keep track of when you obtain your free credit report in South Africa too. Then you will know when you can get it again. Many people try to get one around their birthday, anniversary, or other important date so that they are less likely to forget when they last got one. If you have no idea, you can also call to find out how long it has been since you got one that was free of charge.
It is important to get your free credit report so you can look for mistakes, find out what your score is, and identify any weak areas you may have that you need to improve to make that score better than it is right now.